First, I would like to inform you that I left my camera at HIS, so I don't actually have any pictures. I didn't take that many anyways since the match was so intense!
We started with an early morning send off at 6:30 am, after the the High School spent the night at school for their "Murder Mystery Lock In". When we arrived at HIS, it was to find a gym lined with championship banners from every sport, from every year. And as we walked up to the net, we found it a good 3 feet higher than our own net that we've been practicing with. Oy. Talk about intimidating!
AM
We started by our co-ed team playing 3 different HIS teams. They were exhausted by the fifth game. But they were winning at several points, they rallied back several times, and they made some really good plays that even HIS parents were cheering for.
- I got some great compliments from parents, teachers and coaches from HIS about how well the team plays together and how hard they work. I'd take these kids anywhere, they're so wondeful :)
- At one point, one of the balls went out of control, and it came down to our shortest little 7th grader to get the last hit over the net. She wasn't even facing the net, but she hit it as hard as she could over her head, it went over the net, over the HIS team, and SWISHED into the basketball hoop on the far side. The whole gym went crazy! After we all picked ourselves up from shock, we restarted the game, and I joked with the ref "2 points?!" He was an injured HIS varsity player, who responded, "That's worth 3!" The scoreboard keepers behind him, also HIS students, motioned that they had given us an honorary point. Too cool.
LUNCH
HIS bought us sub sandwiches from Subway! So spoiled :)
PM
HIS ran a skills workshop. I spent most my time with the girls, since the boys didn't need a cheerleader. HIS had a force of nature as their captain, who ran drills at a yell and never stopped moving. By then end, one of my girls came up to me and said, "Cherry is such a nice name for such a scary person". (The thing is, it worked, our girls can spike now! And two can over hand serve!)
RETREAT
Afterwards we went out for a team retreat in HangZhou. I was a little concerned that it wasn't going to happen. After sitting on the bus for about 15 minutes, when they tried to stand up, they literally all fell/tripped/grabbed the railing for strengh. They found it in them to tour the West Lake and take our own 45 minute boat ride to the sacred area at the middle of the lake. The West Lake is actually on the back of the one dollar bill here, so it's pretty important. We also treated ourselves to some McDonald's for dinner. Students got back in line up to 5 times! They needed to replace all that energy that they used.
PRACTICE
Our practices since then have still been fun, but intense. It seems they are all determined to master the spike/overhand serve after all the individualized tips that they recieved. AIAN sports has never been something to sweat about, but I think after they saw how the big schools train, they wanted to work just as hard, but still keep the fun. Yesterday one of them said, "Wow Ms. Lanham, we're REALLY good!" And they really are, they really are.
When practice was over, I announced that they could gather all the balls into the ball bag, but if they wanted to stay after and work on their serving, that would be fine. When I turned around with the ball bag, I was surprised to find every single student holding a ball, but walking away from me. They were heading for the serving line. Every single one stayed for some extra practice. That's why these kids are good!
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